Homophones and Homonyms

Homophones and Homonyms

These are often confused by adults and children. However once you get to play around with them they are quite easy. Let us first of all look at what they are.

Homophone

Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelt differently.

Homonyms

Homonyms are also words that sound the same but which are spelt the same. However they have different meanings.

Let's look first of all at homophones

Sea	Water	See	Using your eyes
Right	Opposite of left	Write	To put pen to paper
There	Place/location	Their	Belonging to someone
Which	A choice of more than one	Witch	Someone who does magic
Steel	Made from iron	Steal	Take from someone

One reason for looking at homophones is because they sometimes cause confusion.
This is often true with there and their.
There is a place or a location.
Whilst their is something that belongs to someone.

Look at the following sentences and see if you know which one to use.
The boys had left (there/their) bikes over (there/their) by the bike shed.

The mother pointed to the bags on the floor and asked "Who has left (there/their) bags (there/their)?"